Cagle to leave Lewisburg baseball at end of year to become football coach
Movement in the DeSoto County coaching ranks continued on Monday, Dec. 11 with the announcement from Lewisburg baseball coach Rusty Cagle that he would be coaching his last season on the diamond this spring. Cagle’s Patriots are set to challenge for a MHSAA 7A state championship a year removed from winning the 6A state title last spring at Trustmark Park in Pearl.
Shortly after that announcement appeared on social media, however, another post announced that Cagle would become the Patriots’ new head football coach, replacing Dustin Hectorne, who last week was named football coach at Horn Lake High School. Cagle will remain as athletic director at the school.
Cagle’s baseball teams have won two state championships, in 2014 as a 4A school and last year in Class 6A. He has been Patriots’ baseball coach since the school opened in 2007.
In addition to state championship hardware, Cagle’s team has been especially successful in the classroom, indicated by 13 seniors signing college scholarships on the same day earlier this year.
Now, the Patriots hope Cagle can fashion similar success on the football field. Lewisburg has reached the football playoffs the past two seasons, but have lost in the first round each season. This past fall the Patriots posted a winning record at 7-4 for the first time since 2017.
